VA Initiates
by ThatOneChick'98
Summary: Rose and Dimitri are training new transfers. Lissa, a transfer from Abnegation, shows up, and Rose's world is flipped upside down. As she trains Lissa, secrets from Rose's past are revealed. The transfers will soon find out that their mentors are not what they seem to be. Will Rose and Dimitri fix their relationship or will they be stuck in this never ending circle of hurt?
1. Chapter 1

VA Transfers

Ch 1

"You're late," he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

Oh, here we go I thought to myself.

"Sorry, I had something important to attend to," I responded tersely, not bothering to keep my voice down.

"I hope it was worth it," he said in his quiet voice. I sighed.

"Loosen up, Comrade, the cubs aren't even here yet." I said, turning to look at him. I could hear Uriah going through the speech at the top of the net. I had about five minutes to battle it out with my partner before we had to stop.

"You have such an... affectionate name for the transfers, yet refuse to be on time for them."

"I'm on time when I have to be. Besides, I don't think my cubs mind right now," I said sarcastically, pointing my arm towards the empty net to emphasize my point. He glared at me for a minute, and I returned his gaze with my signature smirk, daring him to respond. It might have seemed childish on my part, but he was the reason we were like this to begin with.

Breaking us from our stand-off, I heard the first initiate falling before I saw him. He was laughing the whole way down, and when he landed he looked like he had no intention of getting up. I felt bad for telling him he had to get off, it was like taking candy away from a little kid.

"What's your name?"

"Mason, your's?"

"Not important right now," I took his arm and raised it above his head, "First jumper, Mason!" The crowd cheered and I let go of his hand, pushing him to the side, "Go stand over there."

After that, they just kept falling one after the other.

In the low light, I tried to memorize their faces as they landed. They were our future and I was going to make sure that what they brought was bright. The last one immediately caught my attention. Blonde hair, green eyes, and pale skin, she looked nothing like a Dauntless, though that wasn't the only thing that caught my attention. Her bland, grey clothes also made her stick out.

"You're Abnegation."

"Yes," she said looking down, "Or at least I was."

I was puzzled, and I didn't think I'd get anymore out of her,"What's your name?"

"Vasilisa."

I looked at her, she had to be kidding. I turned around, thinking quickly, "Lissa!" I shouted to the crowd before turning to her, "You'll thank me later. Your name sounds like Vaseline. You don't want that."

Uriah jumped down, beside me, "That's it for the transfers. I'm gonna let the Dauntless born figure it out for themselves."

"Great, thanks sugarplum."

"Your welcome, cupcake."

"You are both very immature," the man beside me said. He had been silent this whole time, silently observing in his weird way, absorbing everything that happened. He waved to the cubs telling them silently to follow him. They didn't know who he was, but they could tell he was in charge of them.

I followed him and after a few seconds' hesitation the cubs followed me. We walked into the light and he finally came into clear view of the cubs. A few of them gasped, taking in everything about him. He was handsome: tall with brown, shoulder-length hair, that was currently pulled back, his long, black coat flowed behind him making him look like a god according to dauntless gossip.

More like the devil, I thought to myself.

An extremely good looking one, a voice inside me said back.

We walked into a tunnel that causes even the smallest of whispers to reverberate through the corridor. My co-trainer liked to use this place to introduce himself because he never liked raising his voice.

"I'm Dimitri, this is Rose," I waved when he nodded towards me, "We're going to show you around the complex then we're going to have dinner. Tomorrow you will be in the gym at eight AM, a minute late, you will not be allowed in. Any questions you have you can ask Rose at dinner."

He did this every year, throwing me all the questions. He didn't like talking and knew I loved it. That was the whole reason he did it, and I hated him for it. It made me love them too much, and if they died or were thrown out, I was the one that suffered, not him.

I had tried so hard in previous years to not become too attached but it never worked. Even the most annoying of kids managed to worm their way into my heart, and I felt responsible if they didn't make the cut. I gave up on this endeavor last year, letting them into my heart before I even knew them. It was easier for all of us that way. The cubs knew where they stood with me and no one blamed me when I was heart broken over one of them dying. I also found it decreased the suicide rates if they thought they had someone to go to who had been through what they are to talk to. Even with the new curriculum for training, it was still common to have those who thought death was better than being factionless.

I realized as we entered the dining hall that these thoughts had taken over my mind, and I had blanked out during the entire tour.

Luckily no one seemed to have noticed, well one person noticed.

"You okay?" Dimitri asked as we settled down at the tables. I scanned the room for the cubs, since they would no doubt come find me with their questions.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

For a moment, he stood there and I thought he was going to sit down with me, but then the first transfer arrived and he remembered why nobody sat with me on the first day of training; there had to be room for the transfers.

"Hi," the transfer said uncertainly as Dimitri walked away, "Can I sit here?"

"I don't know, can you?" The transfer paused for a moment before speaking again.

"May I sit here?"

"Yes, you may. What's your name again?"

"Mia, I'm a Candor."

I looked up at her with a smirk, "I'm sorry, I thought you were Dauntless."

She smiled a little, "I am now. Finally, I've always wanted to learn how to fight. Defend ourselves. We will learn that, won't we?"

"It's in the curriculum."

She looked excited, almost jumping in her seat, "What type? How much will we learn?"

I didn't answer for a second, weighing my options, "All types. Self-defense, knives, guns, one-on-one, group fighting. You'll be in good hands.

But make no mistake, I hope you don't have to use it. It's never fun when you do."

She looked a little crestfallen after that, but quickly perked up as the others sat down.

"So," a boy said, sitting beside Mia. Who was he? Chris. Christopher. Christian, that's it! "The Stiff just asked me what the food was. She's still sticking to that 'we don't do indulgence in Abnegation' thing. Can you believe that?"

"I'm sorry," I said, "Why is a Stiff in the Dauntless compound? There are only Dauntless in here."

"I know, so why is she still sticking to the dishonesty of the Abnegation?" he was challenging me and his fellow initiate.

"Abnegation have been sticking to that story for years now, almost as if it's" I paused putting a surprised look on my face, "Real."

"You honestly believe that?" he asked.

"I believe in what I see. I have seen no signs of indulgence within the Abnegation. End of discussion," I said before looking down at my food and mumbled quietly, "Dickhead."

Mia looked at me curiously, "What faction are you from?"

"Who says I'm not from Dauntless?"

"Well...no one, but-"

"I'm Dauntless now, that's all that matters. You're all Dauntless now. Deal with it or leave."

They were silent after that, as Lissa and the others sat down, "I'm guessing you all have questions about training and initiation. You may now ask them to your supreme leader."

"What's up with Dimitri?" Mason asked.

"He has a disease that eats his feelings," I said with a straight face. Mason and the other cubs looked at me incredulously and I couldn't keep myself from chuckling at their expressions. I took a deep breath before moving on, "Truthfully, he's quiet. He doesn't really let people in, which is smart in this field."

"In this field? What training us? What's so hard about training some recruits?" Christian scoffed.

Well, look who had a real question, though I was getting annoyed with his know-it-all attitude.

"Yes. You all are about to go through one of the worst or best times of your life, depending on the year and the group. Getting close to you is either great or horrible. I choose to get close, Dimitri...not so much."

"So, he gets a warrant to be a dick?" Christian said.

I actually laughed at that comment, "I'm going to have to remember that one. Warrant to be a dick!"

They looked at me expectantly and I sighed deciding to give them a brief explanation for Dimitri's behavior, though not too much since it was his story to tell.

"Fine, story time. Once there was a time when Dimitri was able to get close to the transfers, but he finally snapped after a particularly bad year. He had worked really hard to get the whole group to work as a team, and then it all fell apart. One member committed suicide and the rest went downhill after that. Most of them went into depression, quit and became factionless, or went insane and the rest that did end up finishing weren't the same as when they entered the compound. A girl that he had grown really close to made some bad choices. She was one of the few to make it in, but like the rest she was never the same. After that he learned not to grow attached to you all."

They were silent, so I said,"let's hope this will be a good year."


	2. Chapter 2

VA Transfers

Ch 2

Rose

The next day we awoke the cubs at around 0530 and begin prepping them for the first day of the rest of their existence, well unless they became factionless...

"Rise and shine, little cubs!" I shouted as I entered the transfers' dorm.

"Would you stop calling us that?! You're, what, one, two years older than us? Sheesh, we're not babies!" One of the transfers groaned in aggravation.

I looked over to see it was that Christian kid from Candor. Well, that explains his blunt response, but no one talks to Rose Hathaway that way without receiving punishment. I went over to the sink in the end of the room and filled a bucket with cold water. Then I carried the bucket to the bunk, where Christian had cuddled back into his sheets.

"Aaaaahhh!" He exclaimed jumping up from his mattress and hitting his head on the bed above him.

The whole dorm erupted in laughter and I couldn't hide my smirk. I caught a glance from Dimitri from across the room and could have sworn there was slight humor in his eyes before they returned to their usually stoic look.

"Thank you, Christian, for volunteering to clean the mess hall after each meal for the rest of the week. I expect it will remain spotless under your amazing care." I announced, looking him in the eyes. He glared back, but was smart enough not to respond.

"You all have ten minutes to get down to breakfast. Training begins at 0620. For every minute you're late, you will run a lap around the training room." Dimitri announced.

With that, Dimitri left me with the transfers and I chuckled at their shocked faces. I started to follow after him when my favorite transfer spoke up.

"He's kidding right?"

I rolled my eyes, and as I turned to face Christian and answer his stupid question a brilliant idea popped into my head, "Of course he is." I saw the room take a collective sigh of relief and I had to work hard to keep a serious face.

"What will actually happen is you will run one lap for every minute you're late while everyone else is doing their drills. When you finish your laps, you will immediately join in with your fellow transfers in whatever drill they are working on. Once training has ended, you will stay after with Dimitri and make up the drills you missed in your run," I explained, watching their faces drop with each sentence. I couldn't keep my self from laughing at their worried expressions. I may care about these cubs, but it doesn't mean I can't mess with them.

After my short laugh, I put on my serious face again and gave them some advice.

"You now have seven minutes to get down to breakfast. I would spend this time getting ready instead of standing in shock. Oh and some advice for you cubs: stay off Dimitri's bad side, it's not something you want to see," I warned at the entrance and then walked out making my way to the mess hall.

At 0630, all the transfers finally made it to the training room. I rolled my eyes when I saw the number of transfers that actually took my warning seriously. Out of the ten transfers that made it this far only Lissa, Mia, and Eddie took heed of my warning. The dauntless born at least knew better than to try and push Dimitri's buttons, since they knew all the rumors and stories surrounding the supposed "god." I snorted to myself.

"God", right and I'm an angel, I thought.

"Rose, help me demonstrate how to properly incapacitate an opponent." Dimitri told me, breaking me out of my musings.

"Sure thing, comrade." I rolled my eyes at him, but walked towards the mat to face off with him.

"Guess you needed to bring in a real expert to show these cubs how to fight?" I taunted him as we circled each other. As expected, he kept his face blank of any expression and didn't acknowledge my pre-battle taunt.

I made the first move by throwing a right jab at his head. He swerved his head right and wrapped his arm over my extended fist. He then swung his right fist in an arc aimed for my left side ribs. I blocked it with my free forearm and got a hit at his chest before he repelled my arm away and kicked me in the abdomen, releasing my arm in the process. I recovered quick advanced again faking with a left hook and following with a round house kick. He stumbled backwards and I went to pin him, but before I could get him down he grabbed my shoulders flipped me and had me pinned. You could say I was a bit frustrated.

I attempted to throw him off, but only managed to bring a smirk to his face. Finally I sighed in defeat and tapped out, since I knew that once he had me pinned there would be no way for me to get of it.

Dimitri let go of me and proceeded address the cubs.

"Can anyone tell me what they just saw?" He asked in an authoritative voice.

"Haha, easy. We just saw the great Rose get her butt handed to her!" Christian burst out in amusement.

Dimitri looked at my irritated face and smirked slightly at how annoyed I was getting.

"Christian, you can run two extra laps since you back talked. Anybody else who stopped during their run may also add two more laps," I announced as I made my way off the mat.

"Can anyone tell me what else they saw during our match? What kinds of moves did you see? Was there a difference in styles? Anything at all," Dimitri continued as he tested the cubs.

"Rose seemed more enthusiastic in her moves, while you were more laid back and patient," Eddie spoke up.

"Is that all?" Dimitri asked raising his eyebrow.

The cubs continued to speak up and give input into what they observed during our sparing match for the next couple of minutes.

"Good observations, initiates. You might actually make it another day in Dauntless," Dimitri praised.

"Now that you all have seen and examined a fight, we will pair you up with a fighting partner for you to face off against and get a see how much we will need to teach you in preparation for your first test," he continued as I went over to the board and started putting up the pairs I had matched together during the review.

"Um, Dimitri, what do you mean first test? I thought we made it after the jump," Lissa asked timidly, still acting like an Abnegation.

"The jump is just to see if you have a chance at making it in Dauntless. If you can't board a train and make a simple jump that anyone could do, then there would be no chance of you making it as a true Dauntless." Dimitri answered Lissa, then turned to the rest of the cubs. "After making it through the first night, the real initiation starts. Initiation consists of three stages. The first stage is a test of your physical ability. We'll see how well you can make it in a fight, which you'll need once you get out into the real world. You'll be put in pairs each day, you'll fight, and then you'll learn from it, mostly through trial and error," he said, just loud enough for me to hear.

I finished the match ups and let the cubs see how I paired them up. Here were the pairs:

Christian-Eddie

Mason-Jill

Todd-Cameron

James-Victor

Darrel-Connor

Xander-Ivan

Lissa-Mia

"Start at the top, Christian and Eddie."


	3. Chapter 3

"She's terrible. Horrible. Awful. Catastrophic!"

"It's her first fight," Dimitri said, following me down the hallway.

"She was knocked out in the first blow. I said 'go', not 'go to sleep'."

"So what are you going to do about it?" I stopped suddenly, and he screeched to a stop behind me so he didn't run into me. He wouldn't touch me.

"I'm going to Tris."

"Tris? What do you expect her to do about it?"

"What do you expect me to do about it?"

"Something! The first blow. None of us were ever that bad. She didn't even try to block it, she didn't have the chance."

"Rose is right, no one has ever been that bad," Four said from his spot behind Tris' desk.

"Thank you!"

"I still hate you."

"I know."

"Personal emotions aside," Tris said, "We can't do anything about it. We can just hope that she somehow passes the first stage and is better in the second."

"She's too timid. She wasn't meant to be a fighter," I said, remembering the tiny girl in her gray robes. She had been too scared to ask to join the dodgeball game, so she sat and watched every day, "She's always been timid. Why is she here?"

"Is she running?" Four asked.

"I don't know."

"Well, maybe if she breaks out of her shell she'll be better," Tris said.

"She's not going to do it on her own. She'll need help."

"Well then you can help her, you know a ton about confidence considering who you dated," Four said.

"Tobias!" Tris scolded.

I sat there thinking, not listening to Tris reprimand him.

I was the only one that would. Dimitri would close her back up by intimidating her and her peers want nothing to do with her.

"I'll do it," I said.

"What?" Tris asked, startled out of yelling at her husband.

"I'll train her one on one. I'm bound to rub off on her and it will help her get better quicker."

"Uh, well..." Tris said.

"Sounds good," Dimitri said behind me. I was surprised he was backing me on this, and even more surprised he had broken his silence to say something.

"You're...okay with this," Tris said.

"She's gotten a hold of this 'initiate and mentor' relationship now. She can handle it, and she's the only one that can do it. At first she'll intimidate Lissa, then Lissa will get used to it."

"I don't know..." Tris said, looking down at her paper.

Dimitri kicked himself off of the wall he was leaning against and put his hands on her desk, leaning over it, "If you don't let her do this, you'll be responsible for Lissa getting kicked out."

Four looked like he had something to say, but one look at Tris stopped him.

"Do the initiates know where you came from?"

"No," I said, knowing why she was asking.

"Make sure it stays that way, and she can't hop from worst to best. Keep her in the middle, there's always a chance she is Divergent."

"LISSA!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. She yelped and turned towards me. Everyone was silent, "Follow me."

She silently followed a pace behind me, something the Abnegation did to show respect for a person you admire or learn from. I had to wonder which motivation Lissa had for staying behind me.

"Pick up the pace,"I said, walking down the hallway to the other practice room.

"Am I being kicked out?" she asked, quietly.

"Why would you think that?"

"That's what the others said."

"They're wrong. Five laps around the room."

Lissa started running, "Why are we here?"

"Because I didn't think you wanted the other initiates to see you suffer."

"You going to torture me?" she asked, stopping to look at me.

"Yes," there was a long beat of silence, "I feel like we're talking about different types of torture."

Lissa continued to run, quickly running out of breath.

"You're weak," I said, looking down at the ground. This reminded me of a talk I had been given when I was transferring, "We need to make you stronger. Better. Otherwise you won't make it."

Lissa was done with her laps and stood in front of me, "Why are you helping me?"

"Because I'm your trainer."

I got onto the mat and she came up to stand on the other side.

"The first part is easy. I punch, you duck. I punch again, you duck."

"Okay."

I swung and, the first time, she ducked and I missed. The second time, I glanced off her temple.

She slammed hard onto the ground on her back, stunned for a second. After she figured out what had happened, she covered her face, not crying, but upset.

"I can't even do that."

"You'll get it eventually."

"No I won't. I came from Abnegation. We don't fight."

"None of the other factions fight either. Fortunately, you have an advantage."

"Which is?"

"Your whole life you've been training your mind to forget you and focus on other people. When someone is being bullied, a lot of people wouldn't have the guts to stand up for them, you will. Your brave enough to not think about the consequences you'll be placed with. When someone is in trouble, you'll help. That's a power in itself. All you have to do is enhance it."

"How does that help me?"

"Get up."

She quickly followed orders, and I decided to change directions, "A block is exactly what it sounds like. You stop the blow before it has the momentum to do damage."

"Okay."

"I want you to pretend that I'm not trying to hit you, but another person. Block the blow before it hits the other person."

"Why would you hit another person?"

"Why would you let me hurt them? That's the question you need to ask."

She blocked everything. I punched, I kicked, I did everything I could, but she got everything. "Now, go on the offensive."

"No," she said with no question in her voice. I knew why she was doing it, going on offensive would mean that she wasn't defending someone, she was hurting them, but that didn't matter.

She was disobeying orders, and I had to beat that out of her before anyone else got to her.

I struck out, like I would if I was fighting Dimitri.

She landed on her butt and I pinned her to the ground, "When I tell you to do something, do it."

She looked at me, then down at the necklace that had been tucked into my shirt, but had come out. The small, gray cross seemed to gleam in the light.

Her eyes lifted back up to mine, glistening with understanding, "It is you."


	4. Chapter 4

"It IS you!" Lissa said. I let her go and tucked the necklace back into my shirt.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I replied defensively. "ROSEMARIE! I knew it! And Dimitri is Dimitri BELIKOV! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!"

"Lissa, watch yourself!" I warned her, but she continued jumping around and pointing at me.

"You two. You were inseparable! Why did I think that would change after you came here? I have to tell the others! They won't believe where you two are from!"

I nailed her to a wall, tired of trying to get through to her, "If you tell them, you will be Factionless."

That shut her up pretty quickly, so I continued while I still had her attention, "If you tell anyone, I will no longer mentor you. You will fail. You will be kicked out. Am I clear?"

She nodded, and I let her go, walking away from her and the reminder she carried.

"Rose!" Mason (or at least I think it was Mason) said. He jogged across the Pitt, running into people to get to me, "Is Lissa okay?"

"Relatively," I said vaguely. She had gotten pretty banged up, "Why?" "You took her out of training so we thought maybe..."

"Sorry, you're not losing a competitor today. Unless someone dies in the next six hours, which could be very possible considering you stepped between me and food."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said laughing. Oh, no. Not this. "So I was wondering if maybe-" here it comes "-we could go do something later on?" Whoop there it is.

"No." I went around him towards the cafeteria with the puppy on my heels. I saw a group of my friends watching the interaction from a ways away, rapturously taking in the show like it was prime time entertainment. "Why not?" He asked, scurrying back into my path.

"Because I said no." I said simply. Boys need to figure out that no means no.

"Why did you say no?"

"Because I don't have time to babysit you any more than I have to do." My friends let out a big, "OOOOHHHH!" and as they were freaking out over what I had said to Mason, I leaned forward and told him, "Trust me, you don't want to get into a relationship with your trainer."

"Are you speaking from experience?" he inquired.

I smirked at him and walked towards my friends, hoping he would never know.

"You didn't have to crush his dreams!" Christina said with a joking smile. "He's one of my cubs. I can't date him, it would be unethical."

"Well, you would know all about unethical," she said, pushing me towards the cafeteria.

The next day, I tried to avoid Mason as best as I could, but during the morning it was hard. We were doing fights and I had to watch Lissa fight to know how to train her. Unfortunately, that meant I was in the same room as Mason the whole morning.

While Christian and Eddie were fighting, he came to stand beside me. I prayed that he wouldn't do anything in front of Dimitri, but all hope was diminished when he stopped way closer to me than he should.

"We could go to the tattoo parlor Friday night, or maybe just get something to eat?"

Dimitri stiffened beside me, and I decided to ignore Mason. But, of course, he continued, "You could show me around. You seem to like it here, so you would want to do that, right? We could hang out with your friends, they seem...nice. Or if you want we could..."

He carried on until the fight was over and Dimitri turned towards Mason, "It's your turn, unless you're too busy flirting with Rose to get into Dauntless."

Everyone heard it, and everyone watched as Mason got up onto the mat, his face the same color of his hair.

"You didn't have to do that, " I said under my breath.

"You obviously weren't going to do anything."

"Sometimes doing nothing is the best thing you can do."

"More like the best thing you can't do," he said before rubbing his hand over his eyes, "You of all people should know that relationships with the trainers are dangerous. Tris and Four were the exceptions, you are not. We don't need a repeat."

"I know. I've learned my lesson!"

"Obviously you haven't. You may not be doing anything to encourage him, but you're not doing anything to discourage him. Make sure you do."

The fight was over with Mason as the winner. I knew that him winning the fight would trump his moments of embarrassment among his friends. He would be fine, but I wouldn't. Memories I had suppressed for a long time came up. I walked away from Dimitri to watch Lissa's fight closer, but really, I wanted away from that man and the memories he was connected to.


End file.
